Bones snap and bullets thud--such is the music of sweet revenge in BLOOD FOR BLOOD. Lorenzo Lamas is surrounded by pit-bullish opponents and a pulsing scenario that races past several plot turns.
Since his memory is blurry regarding his childhood training in Bazak (the lethal art of self-defense), Officer John Kang (Lorenzo Lamas) prefers the unchallenging sideline of police work. When an LA turf war erupts between Cambodian scuzzballs and interloping Russian Mafiosi, bilingual Kang is
asked to participate in a surveillance session outside a crimeworld conclave.
During the course of this pow-wow, a police infiltrator is unmasked. A group of officers, led by Kang's buddy, Paddy White (Eric Pierpoint), crash the "party," from which bigwigs like Mao Mark (James Shigeta) flee unscathed. Meanwhile, as Kang has nightmares stemming from the bloody siege, a
Cambodian warlord bristles at the arrogance of the American cops and sends his warrior, Prince Samarki (James Lew), to thin the ranks of the LAPD and to put Mao Mark on notice for being too conciliatory to the Russians.
After Lopez (Jeff Griggs), Speecheck (Gerald Hopkins), and Gregory (Brett Baxter Clark) die at Samarki's hands, the families of Kang and White are taken into protective custody. After declaring a truce with the imported Russians, the Prince finds time to eliminate White; Kang eventually learns
that only he can thwart this army of corrupt Cambodian protectors led by Prince Samarki.
Getting the jitters about his expendability, Mao Mark cooperates with sleeping warrior Kang by leading him to the hideout, where the Prince is hiding Kang's kidnapped family. After wreaking havoc on the combined forces of the Russian-Cambodian underworld, Kang reunites with his kin, and the Prince
shoots Mao Mark in the back. Then the long-lost brothers, Kang and the Prince, fight with sword, fist, and a killer-rope that Kang uses against the Cambodian watchdog by strangling him with it on an industrial fan.
Deftly setting up our hero for the surprise news of his origins and for that hoodlum-dispatching climax, BLOOD FOR BLOOD downplays the standard mystical nonsense about combat in favor of an escalating war of nerves pitting good against evil siblings.
The film's game plan is a series of preliminary bouts, clearly psyching up the audience for Kang's ultimate grudge match against his own Prince of Darkness. In contrast with his GLADIATOR COP: THE SWORDSMAN 2 (1995), this Lamas vehicle fortifies the star's whirling dervish fighting skills while
providing him with sufficient psychological baggage. (Graphic violence, extreme profanity, extensive nudity, substance abuse.) leave a comment
